groundwater pumping impacts

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A New Technique for Modeling Land Subsidence Facilitates Better Groundwater Management

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A New Technique for Modeling Land Subsidence Facilitates Better Groundwater Management
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West | December 1, 2019...
Summary
Land subsidence – the sudden sinking or gradual settling of Earth’s surface – can occur naturally or be triggered by human activity. One of...

Land subsidence – the sudden sinking or gradual settling of Earth’s surface – can occur naturally or be triggered by human activity. One of the most common human-affected factors is groundwater pumping, a practice that has been steadily increasing due to prolonged periods of drought. Groundwater pumping is so prevalent in some areas that it is severely compromising the quantity and quality of the groundwater as well as the physical structure of the land and aquifer capacity beneath it. Large-scale initiatives for putting water back into the ground, or groundwater recharge, are being implemented in some regions. However, groundwater resource managers still need better information to determine where the land is at greatest risk of subsidence as well as where recharge efforts would be the most effective. Integrating two reliable data gathering sources – helicopter-deployed systems (airborne electromagnetic or AEM technology) that measure electromagnetic fields and satellite-deployed systems (interferometric synthetic aperture radar or InSAR) to measure deformations – offers groundwater managers an improved method for more accurately modeling changes in the land surface related to the pumping and recharge of groundwater. Additionally, the ability to more precisely detect subsidence may offer an early warning system for declining groundwater levels.

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Aliso Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan

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Aliso Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan
Aliso Water District Groundwater Sustainability Agency | January 17, 2020...
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Amargosa Desert Hydrographic Basin 14-230 Groundwater Pumpage Inventory Water Year 2015

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Amargosa Desert Hydrographic Basin 14-230 Groundwater Pumpage Inventory Water Year 2015
State of Nevada | July 31, 2015...
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Analysis of Potential Water-Supply Management Options, 2010-60, and Documentation of Revisions to the Model of the Irwin Basin Aquifer System, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California
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Analysis of Potential Water-Supply Management Options, 2010-60, and Documentation of Revisions to the Model of the Irwin Basin Aquifer System, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Fort Irwin National Training Area | October 31, 2014...
Summary
The Fort Irwin National Training Center is considering several alternatives to manage their limited water-supply sources in the Irwin Basin. An existing three-dimensional,...
The Fort Irwin National Training Center is considering several alternatives to manage their limited water-supply sources in the Irwin Basin. An existing three-dimensional, finite-difference groundwater-flow model—the U.S. Geological Survey’s MOD-FLOW—of the aquifer system in the basin was updated and the initial input dataset was supplemented with groundwater withdrawal data for the period 2000–10. The updated model was then used to simulate four combinations, or scenarios, of groundwater withdrawal and recharge over the next 50 years (January 2011 through December 2060). The scenarios included combinations of continuing withdrawals from currently active production wells, supplementing any increases in demand with withdrawals from an inactive production well, reducing withdrawal amounts and rates, and reducing the discharge of treated wastewater to infiltration ponds that provide a recharge source to the underlying aquifer. Results of the simulations indicated that, depending on the scenario implemented, groundwater levels would rise (over the next 50 years) from 40 feet to as much as 65 feet in the northwestern part of the Irwin Basin, and from 5 feet to 10 feet in the southeastern part.

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Aquifer-system compaction and land subsidence: Measurements, analyses, and simulations-the Holly Site, Edwards Air Force Base, Antelope Valley, California

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Aquifer-system compaction and land subsidence: Measurements, analyses, and simulations-the Holly Site, Edwards Air Force Base, Antelope Valley, California
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1, 2000...
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Base of fresh ground water (approximately 3,000 micromhos) in the San Joaquin Valley, California

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Base of fresh ground water (approximately 3,000 micromhos) in the San Joaquin Valley, California
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | June 30, 1971...
Summary
Widespread pumping of groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley began about 1900, and since 1940 pumpage has increased at an accelerated rate. In...
Widespread pumping of groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley began about 1900, and since 1940 pumpage has increased at an accelerated rate. In response to the heavy withdrawal of groundwater, water levels have declined rapidly beneath extensive areas of the valley. Consequently, it becomes necessary to delineate the base of fresh groundwater so that changes in thickness of the fresh-water zone can be monitored, and limited depths of water wells can be determined. In turn, those data will be useful in determining favorable areas for groundwater storage, and areas and depths for waste-water disposal wells. Because other agencies and the U.S. Geological Survey have collected a vast amount of well log and other data, most of the information in this report was assembled from existing files. However, for areas where data were scanty, a few hundred additional electrical logs were collected to supplement the available information.

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Bulletin 39-A, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells for the Year 1932, Seasonal Precipitation Records to and including 1931-32

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Bulletin 39-A, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells for the Year 1932, Seasonal Precipitation Records to and including 1931-32
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | January 2, 1933...
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Bulletin No. 39, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells

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Bulletin No. 39, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | December 1, 1932...
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Bulletin No. 52-B Salinas Basin Investigation Summary Report
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Bulletin No. 52-B Salinas Basin Investigation Summary Report
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | December 13, 1946...
Summary
The Board of Supervisors and the Flood Control and Water Conservation Conmittee of the County of Monterey became concerned in April 1944 over...
The Board of Supervisors and the Flood Control and Water Conservation Conmittee of the County of Monterey became concerned in April 1944 over the intrusion of saline water in the ground water supply utilized for irrigation, domestic and industrial purposes in the lower reaches of the Salinas Basin near Monterey Bay. The entire agricultural and urban development in the basin depends on an adequate supply of ground water of good quality.

There had been some abandonment of wells in the Salinas Basin near the bay shore due to excessive salinity as early as 1938. Accelerated encroachment of the contamination occurred in 1943, and the matter was brought to public attention in 1944. The County of Monterey and the Department of Public Works, State of California, executed a contract on July 10, 1944, providing for maintenance in cooperation an investigation of the water resources of the Salinas Valley in Monterey County and conditions relative thereto which obtain in the valley or affect the water supplies available therefor. It further provides that the Department shall prepare a report based on the investigation setting forth the physical facts pertinent to water supply and to salt water Intrusion, and if possible, incorporate findings as to a method or methods of solving the problems involved.

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California’s Severe Drought Has Only Marginal Impacts on Food Prices

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California’s Severe Drought Has Only Marginal Impacts on Food Prices
University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics | May 14, 2015...
Summary
The extreme drought that has gripped California over the past several years is causing onerous adjustments in the natural and human environments. Agriculture,...
The extreme drought that has gripped California over the past several years is causing onerous adjustments in the natural and human environments. Agriculture, which uses much of the state’s water, is at the center of many of these arduous responses. The 2015 impacts of the continuing drought are still underway, but in this special Agriculture and Resource Economics Update issue, we project responses and consequences within agriculture and more broadly. In this issue, Hanak and Mount put this drought in the context of California’s history and put agriculture in the context of water institutions, management, and distribution throughout the state. Next, Medellin-Azuara and co-authors develop detailed, and albeit preliminary, assessments of 2015 irrigation water distribution. They estimate a cut to agriculture of about 8.8 million acre-feet, or about 30% of what might be available in a normal year. (This number may be an underestimate given recent events.) During droughts, farms increase groundwater pumping. The authors estimate that farmers and ranchers will replace about 6.2 million acre-feet of lost surface water deliveries with costly increases in groundwater pumping, where possible in 2015.

Another painful response to drought is to leave land idle. The authors estimate about 564,000 more acres, mostly field crop land in the Central Valley (including irrigated pastures), will be idled in 2015. This too may be an underestimate. USDA reported on June 30, that 2015 California acreage of “principal crops,” (defined as field crops such as hay, grains, oilseeds, cotton and potatoes) is about 900,000 acres below the 2013 total of about four million acres. Over this period, tree nut and tomato acreage increased by about 180,000 acres. So, even accounting for the steady shift to tree nuts and some other higher revenue per acre (and per acre-foot) crops, there is a strong indication of severely accelerated reductions in field crop acreage in California.

The economic toll of the drought is fewer jobs and smaller value of output and economic contribution that would have otherwise occurred. Based on 564,000 idled acres, Howitt et al. estimates farm revenue losses of $1.8 billion, economy-wide revenue losses of $2.7 billion, and 18,600 fewer jobs due to the agricultural drought. That these economic impacts are not even larger is a testament to the extraordinary efforts and innovations by farmers, and others in California agriculture. Idling land, shifting water across crops, and using each acre-foot more economically all have led to smaller losses of revenue and jobs, and only very small price increases for consumers.

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A New Technique for Modeling Land Subsidence Facilitates Better Groundwater Management

A New Technique for Modeling Land Subsidence Facilitates Better Groundwater Management

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Aliso Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Aliso Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan

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Amargosa Desert Hydrographic Basin 14-230 Groundwater Pumpage Inventory Water Year 2015

Amargosa Desert Hydrographic Basin 14-230 Groundwater Pumpage Inventory Water Year 2015

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Analysis of Potential Water-Supply Management Options, 2010-60, and Documentation of Revisions to the Model of the Irwin Basin Aquifer System, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California

Analysis of Potential Water-Supply Management Options, 2010-60, and Documentation of Revisions to the Model of the Irwin Basin Aquifer System, Fort Irwin National Training Center, California

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Aquifer-system compaction and land subsidence: Measurements, analyses, and simulations-the Holly Site, Edwards Air Force Base, Antelope Valley, California

Aquifer-system compaction and land subsidence: Measurements, analyses, and simulations-the Holly Site, Edwards Air Force Base, Antelope Valley, California

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Base of fresh ground water (approximately 3,000 micromhos) in the San Joaquin Valley, California

Base of fresh ground water (approximately 3,000 micromhos) in the San Joaquin Valley, California

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Bulletin 39-A, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells for the Year 1932, Seasonal Precipitation Records to and including 1931-32

Bulletin 39-A, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells for the Year 1932, Seasonal Precipitation Records to and including 1931-32

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Bulletin No. 39, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells

Bulletin No. 39, South Coastal Basin Investigation, Records of Ground Water Levels at Wells

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Bulletin No. 52-B Salinas Basin Investigation Summary Report

Bulletin No. 52-B Salinas Basin Investigation Summary Report

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California’s Severe Drought Has Only Marginal Impacts on Food Prices

California’s Severe Drought Has Only Marginal Impacts on Food Prices

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